Typically, computing systems such as desktop computers and mainframes are designed to provide the highest possible throughput. However, in the last decade or so, the proliferation of mobile computing systems such as laptops, smartphones and tablets which typically place a premium on long battery life has shifted the design focus towards optimizing both speed and battery lifetime. Mobile computing systems incorporate the minimization of power consumption as an important design parameter. The advent of E-metering, microcontrollers, sensors and smartcards has made minimization of power consumption an even more important feature.
In typical microprocessor or microcontroller applications, the microprocessor or microcontroller gathers information from various sources to make a decision or measurement, for example, encephalography, security or sensor applications. Most of the information gathered reaches the microprocessor via an interrupt. Various techniques at both the architecture and circuit level have been investigated to maximize throughput and minimize latency of the computing system. These techniques typically lead to an increase in the total power dissipation of the system. In order to compensate for the increased power dissipation, techniques have been introduced to reduce system power consumption such as body biasing and clock gating, for example.
The performance of general purpose microcontroller or microprocessor systems is typically limited by the number of interrupts that need to be handled simultaneously. The design of these microcontroller systems typically requires a certain throughput to be able to handle the required number of simultaneous interrupts. To maintain adequate throughput requires a minimum supply voltage to be provided to the microcontroller system which then determines the power consumption of the microcontroller system.